Fitting In
by Heart of a Dixon
Summary: Maybe this new Jump Street place wasn't so weird. Maybe I could be happy here. Maybe I would finally fit in. TomXOC


JOEY'S POV:

My heart raced a little faster and I ran back through the conversation I had with the Chief just before I had been assigned… er, well, transferred to the Jump Street program.

"You're just so young-looking, you see?" he said, tapping his fat cigar on the edge of a glass ashtray. "People just don't believe you're a cop." he explained, taking a seat in his leather rolling chair.

"Yeah, I know," I grumbled begrudgingly, angling my face downwards. I'm sure he still saw my frown, though.

"We're going to send to a new…station." The way he said it made it sound like "station" wasn't the word he would normally apply to this Jump Street. He had instructed me to go to Jump Street Chapel and get further details from a Captain Jenko.

When I asked for more information, all he would reveal was it's location and the fact that it was for people "like me". Helpful.

So here I was, standing in front of a rickety building that could only be Jump Street Chapel. I took a deep, steadying breath and walked slowly and deliberately up to the metal platform and into the Chapel. There was an Asian-looking man sitting behind a desk and scribbling on a stack of papers.

I cleared my throat nervously and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear.

The man's head snapped up. "Oh, sorry, I didn't see you there." He smiled and stood from his desk, offering his hand. "Harry Ioki."

I shook his hand, but he only gave me an elaborate handshake. "Joey Rich." I answered.

He looked confused. "But that's a guy's name."

Yeah, well, you've got the first name of a magical 12-year-old boy. I bit back my comment and said, "It's the name on my birth certificate, so that's what I go by."

There was an awkward pause before a large, muscled man came jumping in. "Ioki!" he hollered. But he broke off when he saw me and stared, wide-eyed. "And who is this?" he asked.

Harry gestured between us and said, "Penhall, meet Joey Rich. Joey, this is officer Doug Penhall."

Doug smiled widely and cocked a brow as he drawled a greeting.

"Hello." I said shyly.

"Yo, Jude, Tommy! Come meet the newbie!" he yelled, making me jump.

"Penhall, what are you yelling about?" came a woman's voice as she walked around the corner and into the room. She had teased, curly hair pulled half up on one side and a single earring with a feather on it hanging down low. She looked like a teenager.

Come to think of it, they all did. Doug had a playing card earring in and a haircut like a greaser. He was wearing a black leather jacket and ripped up jeans.

Only Ioki seemed to be an actual officer. He was wearing slacks and a blue button-up shirt with his gun holster empty, but strapped around his shoulders nonetheless. But his attitude, the way he held his head, the way he smiled, the way he talked… it seemed like teenager just oozed out of him.

These people didn't seem like just any teenagers, though. They seemed like, well, hooligans.

"Oh, so we've got a new recruit, huh?" the woman asked, pulling me out of my epiphany. She smiled and held her hand out. "Judy Hoffs."

I shook her hand. "Joey Rich."

"So I guess you're looking for Jenko, huh?" Ioki asked.

I nodded.

"I'll take her!" Doug announced eagerly, holding his hand up in the air.

Judy rolled her brown eyes and told me, "Don't let him scare you or trick you into anything."

I nodded and stepped up beside Officer Penhall. "Right this way." He slung an arm over my shoulders. He even talked like he was a teenager. "So, Joey, huh?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said. "Joey."

"Got a middle name?"

I nodded.

"You gonna tell me?"

I sighed and said, "Jax. Why?"

He grinned and said, "Just thinking up nicknames. Its usually quicker to call people by nicknames than their actually names."

I nodded.

We had reached Captain Jenko's office, but the door was closed and there were low voices coming from the other side.

"So what have you come up with?" I turned to him.

He seemed to think for a moment before saying, "JJ, Jojo, Jo, Little Richie, Jax."

I laughed. I had never had a nickname before and honestly it felt nice to think that someone cared enough to give me one…even though I had only just met him.

The door to the office behind us opened. "Doug, send the newbie in," an older-sounding man said from inside.

Doug smiled assuringly at me and waved me in. I walked in and shut the door behind me before turning to face the man behind the desk. "You Officer Rich?" he asked.

I nodded, confused.

This man couldn't be the captain. I mean surely, he wasn't. This was a hippie not the captain of a police force.

He picked up a manila file folder off of his desk and began looking through the papers in it. "Joey Jax Rich. Age 21. Height 5'2" weight 118 lbs. Eye color hazel, hair color black."

Why was he reciting this bull? Would he also like to know that there was a mole shaped like Kentucky on my butt?

"Butt mole the shape of Kentucky," he read off.

My face reddened and my eyes widened. I wanted to say something, to tell him that was an out-of-line comment, but he was my superior. It was up to him to decide what was or wasn't out of line around here.

A snort of laughter from the corner of the room caught my attention.

I turned and saw another man lounging in a well worn couch. He had warm brown eyes, a very bright smile, the most adorable laugh I had ever… What on earth is wrong with you, Rich? You're a police officer, not some blushing, crushing, giggling girl!

His hair hung over a white bandana tied around his forehead. "Sorry," he said, smiling good-naturedly at me after realizing I had been half-glaring at him.

"Anyway…" the Captain said. "What on earth are you wearing?" Jenko looked me up and down, analyzing my policeman uniform.

I looked down at myself. "My uniform?" I asked.

Jenko sighed. "I guess it's time I explained what goes on around here," he said, walking around the desk and gesturing to a wobbly-looking chair as he sat on the edge of the front of his desk.

After I had gotten comfortably situated in the chair, he began his explanation.

"The Jump Street Program is a program for officers like yourself who look too young to be real cops, dig?"

I nodded and awkwardly repeated, "Dig."

"We send officers like you in to gain the trust of the little delinquents and we bust them for whatever it is they did wrong. Catching 'em while their young, you know?"

I nodded, thinking through all this. "So how do we gain their trust?"

Jenko smiled. "You've gotta be like them. Dress like them, talk like them, walk like them, act like them, think like them. When they trust you enough to bring you in on their dirty deeds, you'll have all the proof you need to bust 'em, dig?"

I nodded once again.

"Hanson, why don't you take this cat down to wardrobe and get her decked out in perp-gear," Jenko said, turning his attention to the man lounging on the couch.

The man, Hanson, stood from the couch and held his hand out. I shook it and he said, "Tom Hanson."

I smiled at his lop-sided grin and said, "Joey Rich."

He looped his arm through mine and pulled me out of the office and into the main area, which had access to every office. "Hi guys, bye guys!" Tom yelled to Judy, Doug and Harry in deep conversation at Harry's desk as we raced from the room.

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><p><strong>Quick bonding! BAM! Tell me whether or not I should continue. Thanks for reading! :) <strong>


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